Joe Gage's HANDsome (1981)

 

Directed by Joe Gage

***

Handys across America. An atmospheric mood piece about jacking off. Very dark and raunchy in places, the medium of the dirty phone call leading to some bizarre and almost free associative erotic fantasies. Interestingly some of the spoken fantasies blur the lines of gay/straight desire, men talking about being turned on by men engaged in sex acts with women. Jacking off leads to a kind of more extreme and unusual sexual fantasy than can take place in reality so it's interesting to see an erotic film try to capture that.

There's something strangely offputting about this film, the excellent Man Parrish soundtrack new wavey but also ominous. One sequence in a car in the middle of the woods feels exactly like a slasher movie, whispered voyeurism, really dark cinematography and threatening moments. In the Ask Any Buddy podcast, Evan and Tyler argue the mood of the scene shifts, but I was still highly unnerved by it.

As a film, it is fairly erotic, but also fairly boring. Jacking off is a cinematic activity, but watching dudes do it exclusively for 75 minutes is a real patience tester.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Passing Strangers (1974)

Image
Directed by Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. ***** Incredible. Bressan's debut feature is a remarkable work of erotic cinema that feels unlike anything else I've seen. It's less interested in fucking than it is about romantic connection, bridging the gap between experience and coming out and the yearning to be with someone. The first half is a beautiful but quietly devastating portrait of loneliness, the black-and-white cinematography just making their sadness more stark. Yet, there are moments of light and passion. The sex is hot and the artistic flourishes Bressan uses are delightful. A dreamy bubble sequence is full of intense close-ups and joy. In the film's second half our two lovers meet and the world bursts into gorgeous colour. What struck me most about this wasn't that it was some fantasia. That beach date and subsequent sex are rooted in reality. Flying a kite together is stupid and silly but it's also so so sweet. It kinda reminded me of my first dat...
Read more

Golden Years (1982)

Image
Directed by Toby Ross **** Less of a narrative (despite an odd framing device that never gets any kind of explanation) means there is more of a focus on the action. Most of which is heavily stylised, like the naked dance that opens the film or the fantasy fireside sex at the end. Uses pop music in a hilarious way that adds to the mood. One scene, featuring a vaguely bored boy, is set to Emerson, Lake & Palmer's 'C'est La Vie', giving the scene a touch of bitterweet melancholy that actuallly works, even if I doubt it's what Ross intended. But the best scene in the film is a lengthy solo session where a naked guy walks around the house vaguely horny. Unlike many solos in modern gay porn, climax isn't the point, more of an erotic exploration. It feels unlike anything else I've seen in erotic cinema because it doesn't feel performative, but merely an expression of this guy feeling himself.
Read more

Forbidden Letters (1979)

Image
Directed by Arthur J. Bressan Jr. ***** Been trying to think of the right words to talk about Forbidden Letters for a couple days now. After seeing the new restoration on PinkLabel.tv, I was blown away. Each scene has complex thematic exploration and is visually stunning. Forbidden Letters is a film about distance, longing and being closeted even when you're out and proud. Richard has been in prison for a year, while his boyfriend Larry waits and remembers. Today is the day Richard is released. They've had little communication, the letters they've so desperately wanted to write never sent for fear of outing Richard and increasing his jail time. So they wait in their pain, the ache getting stronger and stronger. The film opens on a strange avant-garde montage of a lawyer explaining the situation, which is later revealed to be Larry's dream. He is woken by a call from his friend, Iris, the rare female character in a gay porn film. She's a fun presence, but her role be...
Read more